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Posted: 5/25/2014 3:01:53 PM EDT
My first real attempt at forging a blade Only a little stock removal was needed to finalize the shape and remove the hammer marks. I have decided that for future builds, I'd rather grind than hammer because blade smithing is a little too much like work!
I didn't have any reason to expect it to turn out well, so I didn't want to spend any money on it or dip into my 1095 stock....so I used my last piece of 1976 Chevy pickup leaf spring. I figured that with all the heating and hammering, I'd find any cracks soon enough, and I'd also be realigning the structure of any stressed areas. I've made other knives from this same batch of material (with varying degrees of aesthetic success) but all of them have held up admirably to hard use. I really like the way this one handles--slight recurve belly, secondary choil for choking up and thumb rest for delicate work. The only thing I'm not happy with is that the tip came out a bit thin. I'll have to remember not to use it as a pry bar...and if I have to get stabby, aim for the soft spots. The handle is a homemade laminate. Industrial vinyl floor tile and fiberglass resin.....no idea how well it'll hold up, but it wasn't any easier to shape than hardwood or bone. I figure that if it's made to last a decade or so on hospital or mall floors, it should work for this application. (recent manufacture, so no asbestos) I used brass tubing for the lanyard/lashing holes. After a quick sandblast, I used some acid from an old car battery to force a patina, then buffed it on a cloth wheel to give it a little character and polish the edge. I wish I had discovered this hobby years ago 
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Thank you for the compliment.
I waddled into this with almost no plan at all. No guard, so it wouldn't be my choice for a fighting knife. With the thin tip and shorter blade, it's not much good as a chopper or camp knife. It's too pointy to be a good skinner, and it's too thick to be a good cutter. The more I look at it, the more I think I made one of the most useless knives in history.....but it looks cool!
I'm creative, meaning that I like to make stuff.....but I'm not very original in my thinking. I had a picture in my mind from looking at Bob Terzuola, Al Mar, and Spartan knives and wanted to see what I could do with the features those masters developed that appealed to me. The handle is a direct ripoff of Terzuola's CQB and the blade is a Spartan/Al Mar hybrid.....I'd probably get sued if I tried to sell it. 
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Quoted:
That is great for a first attempt, heck even for the 10th or 50th. Too much like work?? I call it therapy  Thank you very much--to be honest, I'm pretty proud of how it turned out but would welcome any suggestions on how to make it better. What I like about forging is that when you screw up or don't like the outcome, you just reheat and move the metal again. (I proved this several times on this knife!) What I don't like is that my little noodley arms aren't up to swinging the heavy hammer. I have a matching set of bad rotator cuffs so I'm limited to smaller hammers.....took a lot longer than it should have and my shoulders are telling me that I won't be trying to make any damascus 
Quoted:
That turned out really well. What are you using as a forge? Thanks! Most of the time I use a homemade propane forge that consists of a Harbor Freight weed torch and a stack of firebrick...but with the price of propane, and knowing that I'd need to keep it hot for a lot longer than I normally need, I decided to use the oak and hickory from my brush pile for fuel. I used an old steel wheel as my forge and a pipe attached to the shop vac for a bellows. My anvil is a 50 lb cast iron I found on Craigslist for $20. |
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